Herman Blake Bio

The MUSC Humanities Committee and the Offices of the President and the Provost are pleased to announce the appointment of J. Herman Blake, Ph.D., as MUSC’s inaugural Humanities Scholar in Residence. The Humanities Scholar in Residence serves as a Visiting Faculty Scholar, and will develop new programs to enrich student, faculty and staff educational experiences by bringing expert scholars in humanities and related disciplines to campus. The Humanities Scholar in Residence will serve as advisor to the Humanities Committee, and to the President and Provost on matters of cultural enrichment.

Dr. Blake, born and raised in Mt. Vernon, New York, joined MUSC on November 19, 2007, from the University of South Carolina, Beaufort, where he served as Scholar in Residence and Director of the Sea Islands Institute. Dr. Blake has a long and illustrious academic career, having earned a B.A. in Sociology from New York University, an M.A. in Sociology from the University of California - Berkeley, and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California - Berkeley. He received special training at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration, Institute for Educational Management.

Throughout his career, Dr. Blake has been a leader and innovator in academic achievement of students from underrepresented minority backgrounds in higher education. To that end, he has used many approaches – being best known for his pioneering work in service learning and community engagement and development.

Dr. Blake is a highly accomplished and experienced academic administrator, having served as the founding Provost of Oakes College at the University of California - Santa Cruz, the Director of African American Studies at Iowa State University, Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education at Indiana University Purdue University - Indianapolis, and President of Tougaloo College in Mississippi. He has a substantial record of academic achievement, having served as full Professor of Sociology at the University of California - Santa Cruz, Indiana University Purdue University - Indianapolis, and Iowa State University. He served for two years as the Eugene M. Lang Visiting Professor of Social Change at Swarthmore College and was designated as Master Teacher in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University.

Among his many honors, he was selected as the Iowa Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and by the Council for Advancement andSupport of Education; he has served as a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow (twice), Ford Foundation Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Fellow, John Hay Whitney Fellow, Population Council Fellow, Kent Fellow from the Danforth Foundation, and as the Mina Shaughnessy Fellow from the Fund for Improvement of Post-Secondary Education. Dr. Blake has served on numerous national task forces, advisory committees and councils. He served on the Board of Trustees for the Council for the Assessment of Experiential Learning, the Board of Directors for the Fielding Institute, the Board of Directors for the United Negro College Fund, the Board of Trustees for the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, and the Boards of Trustees of Earlham College, Berea College, and Gettysburg College. Dr. Blake has been awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Wisconsin - Parkside, Indiana University Purdue University - Indianapolis, the University of Massachusetts - Amherst, Manchester College of Indiana, St. Lawrence University of New York, and the Professional School of Psychology in California.

Dr. Blake has been extraordinarily active in public and community service, and has a very substantial publication history with over fifty full-length contributions and a book titled, Revolutionary Suicide, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1973 (with Huey P. Newton). He also has been active in peer review throughout his career, currently serving on the Editorial Boards of three journals. Dr. Blake is Vice President of Scholars for Educational Excellence and Diversity, which he founded along with his wife, Emily L. Moore, Ed.D., who also is a lifelong academician. Dr. Moore was recently appointed as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Dillard University of Louisiana.

Dr. Blake will work closely with our Humanities Committee, our Quality Enhancement Plan Steering Committee, and the Offices of the President and Provost during his two-year appointment. Additionally, Dr. Blake will serve as Professor in the Colleges of Health Professions and Dental Medicine. Please join us in welcoming Dr. Blake to the MUSC faculty, and Dr. Blake and his wife, Dr. Emily Moore, to the MUSC family.